Abstract

The Chilean Skill for Life (CSFL) is a school mental health program implemented by local agencies from the Education, Health, and Social Services public sectors. It represents an excellent opportunity to study inter-organizational collaboration and its advantages to public and state-subsidized schools. The propensity score matching technique was used to compare school performance in second grade (the most intensive treatment level) between schools participating in the program and those not participating and between schools with different types of sectoral collaboration to identify the best partner for the school. To select all Chilean schools' participant in CSFL and the comparative group of schools' non-participant, a sequential sampling was applied. The measures were obtained from government public data, considering annual school performance and other educational indicators. It was found that public schools that implement the CSFL obtain better school performance than those that do not implement it (ATT = .042; p < .05), for state-subsidized schools, the same was not found. It was also observed that when educational agencies implement the program, the gain is more significant (ATT = .046; p < .05). The importance of aligning program values and goals with local agencies and schools is discussed, analyzing the possibilities for better collaboration in school mental health.